At the other end of the spectrum is mania. Mania can be thought of as the opposite of depression. Whereas depression is associated with low energy, sadness, diminished interest or pleasure in life, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished ability to think or concentrate; mania is recognized by symptoms such as high energy, inflated self-esteem, "pressured speech (more talkative than usual), racing thoughts or flight of ideas, and excessive involvement in pleasurable activities which tend to have a high risk for painful consequences.
Just as a person may suffer from only the depressive
end of the emotional spectrum (unipolar depression), it is also possible
to experience only the other end of the spectrum in the form of manic episodes.
Thus, bipolar disorder is characterized by mood
swings between the low moods of depression and the high, elevated moods
of mania. The timing of the mood swings is highly variable. They may be
erratic or repetitive, with cycles varying from weeks, months, or years.
In some cases the mood swings occur many times within the same day ("rapid
cycling").
In its most extreme forms, mania may be experienced with psychotic features. Psychosis means that the person is out of touch with reality. They may be hallucinating (having perceptual distortions) or delusional (having cognitive or mental distortions).
Schizophrenia is another major form of psychosis. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between bipolar disorder with psychotic features and schizophrenia. In an attempt to lessen the confusion, a distinct diagnostic category (schizoaffective disorder) has been created for the overlap between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
I am emphasizing the psychotic aspects of bipolar disorder because this form of the illness is sometimes associated with transpersonal features, a concept which will introduced in the following case studies and further elaborated in the next chapter.
The standard medical treatment for bipolar disorder is the chemical, lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate is a naturally occurring salt. Its therapeutic potential was discovered by an Australian researcher seeking a neutral solution to serve as a control substance in experiments with rats. Fortunately, he was astute enough to notice that the substance, intended to have no effect, actually affected the rats' behavior in a specific and useful manner. He had a difficult time convincing his colleagues to give lithium a try it had been used in previous experiments with humans and its propensity for toxicity had resulted in several deaths. Eventually, its therapeutic value was acknowledged and is now widely used by the medical profession in treating mood disorders.
The therapeutic action of lithium carbonate is unknown.
In other words, we do not know how it works. As just described, its discovery
as a treatment for bipolar was a fortuitous accident. Interestingly, its
therapeutic effect was probably known many centuries ago. The Romans recognized
that persons suffering from certain forms of "insanity" (i.e., bipolar
disorder) could be healed if they bathed and drank the water from certain
healing springs and pools of water. It is likely that this healing
water had naturally high levels of lithium. Modern epidemiological
studies also indicate that naturally occurring lithium can have therapeutic
effects in mood disorder. Comparisons between the lithium level in
soil samples from various parts of the United States and the suicide rates
for these geographical areas shows that persons living on land with high
lithium levels commit fewer suicides than individuals inhabiting low lithium
land. For certain cases of bipolar disorder which do not respond to lithium
treatment, antiseizure medications are helpful. Thus there seems to be
an overlap between bipolar disorder and seizure disorders as well as the
aforementioned overlap with schizophrenia. The reasons for these
commonalities are presently unknown to medical science. I have described
and documented the above issues in bipolar disorder in a previous work
entitled, The Treatment of Depression: Holistic Approach Based on the
Readings of Edgar Cayce. Edgar Cayce was aware of the therapeutic
potential of lithium for mood disorders, the relationship between trace
minerals in the soil and suicide rate, and the overlap of bipolar disorder
with other psychiatric and neurological illnesses. Readers interested in
such topics may wish to study the previous book (see Appendix).
Attacked
Ms. [17891 was an artist living in New York City when she became mentally ill and was placed in a state mental institution. Her psychiatric diagnosis was "manic-depressive insanity." A friend of Edgar Cayce's became involved in the case and assisted the family in getting several readings from Mr. Cayce. There is substantial background information in this case as exemplified by the following excerpts from letters sent to Edgar Cayce:
"It is seldom that I write to you about a case that
is so pitiful as this one here ...
"The history is that some man who was a Swedish
masseur invited her to come and take a treatment and who would
introduce her to a lot of artists in New York. The family does not know
whether she went or not but in her hallucinations she cries against the
man with the black umbrella. He always carried a black umbrella. The family
believes that he might have hypnotized her but, of course, no one knows.
She has gone down to nothing her body is black and blue and the whole
family is worried to death. She has a lot of fine paintings which she will
be able to sell when she gets out and she will be able to make her own
way and it may be that the good Lord Himself has visited her this way in
order to bring her to the attention of people who might recognize her genius
and help her to be successful in life ...
"PS. This girl has shown her pictures in a great
many exhibitions in New York and has been very successful. I am under the
impression that someone has harmed her in some way because she became sick
after her last visit to this unknown person and was unconscious for three
days. After she woke from the unconsciousness she became hilarious and
later had hallucinations as to someone trying to harm her." (From a letter
dated December 27, 1938)
"Had you seen her the first day when I visited her, I believe you would have thought, as did the doctors, that she would never recover. She tore a mattress half in two once she got her fingernails into the cloths. She was absolutely a wild maniac." (From a letter dated May 4, 1939)
The references to her becoming "hilarious" and acting as a "wild maniac" are indicative of her manic episodes. Apparently, she also experienced spells of deep depression.
Nine readings were given for this young woman over a period of about two-and-one-half years. Here is the first reading in the series which describes the circumstances of her attack, the physiological trauma, and the psychological effects. She was confined in the Manhattan State Hospital when her first reading was given on January 13,1939.
"Yes, we have the body and those conditions which
surround same.
"Now as we find, there may be help brought to this
body, if there can be under changed environs the application of that
which is the fruit of the spirit of truth, of helpfulness, of gentleness,
of kindness, of patience.
"As we find, many changes will be necessary in making
applications that may be helpful.
"The first, this change of environment.
"In giving that as may be helpful, then, for the
physical and the mental welfare of the body something might be given
as to the sources or the causes of the present condition, to say nothing
of the horrible effect the environs have upon the body, and that through
which this entity or soul has passed in its present environment.
"There being in this body, with this entity, a high
nervous temperament, with ideals as high, as keen as may be found in many
a day, the activities through which the entity passed have shattered its
hopes, its aspirations by the advances that were unspeakable to the entity,
the MENTAL self, the higher self.
"And in the attempt to escape, and finding self
trapped as it were, the physical exercise and activity in the attempt shattered
the connection between the cerebrospinal and sympathetic system; especially
in the coccyx and lumbar areas.
"Losing consciousness the entity became a prey to
those suggestive forces as were acted upon, and by the injection of outside
forces to keep that hidden as attempted upon the body.
"Then, in its present environs, there have been
only moments of rationality; and then NO one to respond brought greater
and still greater depression to the better self.
"And these must all be taken into consideration
in the administering to the physical as well as mental needs of the body.
"To be sure, it will require that there be a constant
attendant; and one physically able to handle the body, but NOT in a manner
of other than kindness, patience, and with LOVING care rather than
the attempts to further break down the self-expression.
"Then the correction of those pressures which exist
in the cerebrospinal system, especially in the lumbar and coccyx [tailbone]
area.
"There should be sufficient care in the feeding
that there be strength- and nerve-building foods, supplying the elements
that will replenish an impoverished body; a condition where there is not
anemia in its functional sense but anemia in the sense of the deterioration
of those portions of the physical organism which are able to supply blood
nutrition and the activities necessary.
"It is more malnutrition than the sense of anemia.
"Also we would supply low electrical forces of the
static nature, carrying the elements of gold into the system. Such would
be begun after the third or fourth adjustment, or after ten days or two
weeks of the gentleness, kindness and patience and the feeding of the body;
so that it has sufficient to build upon. The attachments of the Appliance
would be, the small copper plate to the 4th lumbar, and the larger nickel
plate through which the Gold Solution passes (in the proportion of one
grain Chloride of Gold to each ounce of Distilled Water) to the umbilicus
plexus or lacteal duct area; for thirty minutes each day.
"After these all have been given, then, for six
to eight weeks, we would give the further instructions for the corrections,
the manners, the modes, the WAY to bring about this coordination between
the sympathetic and the cerebrospinal system.
"The impulses of the imaginative system must be
quieted through gentleness and kindness, yet positiveness.
"And let such an one, who has the care of the body,
be one not lacking in prayer and in love for the fellow man.
"Ready for questions.
"Q. What environment would be suggested, where these
directions might be followed?
"A. As indicated, where there is care; an attendant,
constantly; and where there is a loving and not a HORRIBLE environment!
"Q. What doctor would you suggest to make the corrections?
"A. Anyone in sympathy with that as indicated
Dobbins the better.
"The beauty of this soul, its abilities as a creative
influence in the lives of those who may bring it back as it were from the
very borderland, is worth all the effort, all the love, all the kindness
one may give. Such is so near possession that there needs to be great care
taken.
"We are through for the present."
So it was the traumatic experience of being attacked and the physical struggle to escape that produced Ms. [17891's mental illness. However, notice that Edgar Cayce pointed out some important predisposing factors. Ms. [1789] was a creative person with a "high nervous temperament" and high ideals and hopes that were shattered by the "advances that were unspeakable to the entity, the MENTAL self, the higher self."
Edgar Cayce is describing a very spiritual individual who has been traumatized psychologically as well as physically. The creative energies were very high in this woman. With the injury to the lower end of the spine, these energies were exaggerated and manifested as cycles of mania and depression.
Note the reference to "possession" in this reading. This dimension of her condition falls within the transpersonal aspects of mental illness and will be discussed in the next chapter.
The treatments recommended by Edgar Cayce were closely followed. She was removed from the mental hospital and cared for by her family. She received spinal adjustments to correct the injury to the lower spine. Electrotherapy with gold was provided to help the nervous system re-establish coordination. Of course, there was an abundance of caring companionship by family members.
Ms. [ 1789] responded well to treatment and made a steady recovery. She resumed her artistic career and remained mentally stable for many years. Gladys Davis, Edgar Cayce's secretary, included a follow-up report with this case which stated:
"To this date [November 19571, as far as we have
been able to find out, Miss [1789] has remained perfectly normal, with
no recurrence of the trouble which caused her to become institutionalized."
Manic-Depressive Mood Swings Traced to Menopause
Ms. [1087] was sixty-eight years old when her daughter wrote to Edgar Cayce seeking his help. In a letter dated December 17, 1935, the daughter explained:
"My mother has recurring attacks of a deep melancholia
which led into a kind of coma state mentally and into a most low state
physically. These attacks last from two to three years. She has never had
adequate care during them we have just worried along trying to get clean
clothes on her, having a nurse for a while when the family budget was larger
and shouting at her when our nerves cracked. Doctors come in and say
cheerfully that nothing is wrong organically just depressed but try
living with something (for this ceases to be a person) that is "just depressed."
I'm trying very hard to do something different this time. I've managed
to keep hold of my temper pretty well thanks to your teachings.
"Every reaction is negative. If the question concerns
food or a clean or new dress or having someone in to clean the answer
is always "No."
"Of course I have theories about the matter. But
theories don't pull me out of the abyss into which this weight drags me.
When you can give me a reading, I believe it should be a physical one,
although the condition is so apparently mental. But wont you and Hugh
Lynn talk the condition over and decide? It seems to me that if in the
physical reading we could ask some simple questions about how to proceed
in SIMPLE ways we might get some real help. Questions about what will make
the daily routine easier for both her and me and so on. I know there
are elaborate ways of helping such cases usually including sanitariums
and baths and much apparatus.
"But those things are out of my reach, you see.
To move her and to start her in any slightest newest direction makes for
a pitiful scene. She is most unhappy and so is everyone near her.
"I should emphasize that this is not entirely a
condition of senescence [senility], for as near as I can remember these
attacks began when she was 45. But they are not unlike certain elements
of her everyday personality. They are only multiplied to the nth degree."
Reading 1087-1 was given on December 23, 1935. Edgar Cayce cited physical imbalances and "depletions" associated with menopause as primary causes of this woman's mental illness:
"Yes, we have the body here, [1087].
"Now, as we find, there are conditions that are
rather a complication of disturbances in the physical forces of the body.
And the mental reaction, as we find, is from the physical conditions; many
causes, or more than one cause, being contributory measures.
"These, then, are the conditions as we find them
with this body, [10871 we are speaking of
"THE BLOOD SUPPLY, this shows an impoverishment,
or low vitality, low resistance. Yet at times in the physical forces the
physical strength appears to be above the normal in its ability for activity.
Just as do the mental reactions come for a very strong determination at
times. These arise from those improper coordinations between the influences
distributed to make for replenishing in physical, mental and the material
activities in the body.
"And then it appears or becomes as a borderland
of POSSESSION at such times.
IN THE NERVOUS FORCES OF THE BODY, there has been and is shown a depletion
in the vitality, the blood supplies; just so there has been a depletion
in the nervous energies at times.
"Hence those periods when there are the indications
of the excess of activity in the nerve forces by those very conditions
that have drawn so heavily upon the nervous forces; producing an incoordination.
"This arises from those disturbances when there
was not only the change, or the menopause, but the lack of the proper coordination
through a very depleted physical force throughout the body.
"Hence we find there are specific centers [where]
the incoordination is shown; as in the lumbar (4th to the 2nd), the 9th
dorsal and specifically the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cervicals. These are centers
where the coordination between the impulse and the physical activity produces
periods when there are the associations with not only the mental and physical
but the spiritual activities or the SOURCE of the ENTITY itself
in its connection with the physical body. Thus there are periods produced
when the body is overhilarious, but the more often there is produced melancholia,
the inability to rest, the inability to make for activities in those things
that pertain to even self-preservation. Or there is the lack of the conditions
that make for care of self, or for those things that would be termed as
the conditions where suggestive forces meet the physical activities ...
"Owing to the very nature of the disturbances, we
find that those conditions in the mouth or the teeth are a CONTRIBUTORY
cause; though not other than those which may be aided when there may be
builded in the activities better coordination and first the DESIRE
for self-preservation, self-building; not self-indulgence but self's activities
for betterment, to be used FOR something!
"These, then, would be the periods when the mouth
or teeth might be aided, and thus add to the abilities to give further
aid or help for the general body.
"IN MAKING THE APPLICATIONS, THEN: While these become
very disturbing, very aggravating, these should be as
much as possible under the supervision of one that UNDERSTANDS the
physical forces of the body; as to make for companionship for the body.
Not by might or by main strength, or force, but rather by PERSUASION
and the activities that would make for periods when there may be made
the giving of greater strength to the mental and physical body; by care,
attention, patience, perseverance and the like. Not that there would be
the giving in always, but rather PERSUASIVE measures in asserting self
in caring for the body, in carrying on in just as near the normal manner
as possible. Never make statements that are not to be carried out fully,
but ALWAYS as the body mentally and physically a part of the suggestive
forces."
Edgar Cayce's observation that "there are periods produced when the body is overhilarious, but the more often there is produced melancholia" recognized this woman's manic-depressive mood swings. Apparently, the depressive episodes were more common and pronounced than the mania.
Again, note the reference to possession in this
case, a transpersonal feature which will be discussed in the next chapter.
Also note the reference to "the spiritual activities or the
SOURCE of the ENTITY itself in its connection with the physical body."
Edgar Cayce sometmes used the word "entity" as synonymous with "soul."
Thus, the "entity" or "soul's" connection with the physical body was somehow
related to this woman's mood swings. In other words, the soul was not able
to interface properly with the physical body. Mental and emotional symptoms
resulted from this disruption of the "body-soul" connection. The soul aspect
of this case is yet another example of the transpersonal dimension of mental
illness which will be discussed more thoroughly in the next chapter.
The therapeutic recommendations in this case were osteopathic adjustments to relax the body. As a further aid to relaxation, Cayce prescribed a mild sedative containing valerian. The Radio-Active Appliance (Radial Appliance) was suggested along with some basic dietary recommendations. Although there was a strong physical dimension to this woman's condition, her reading emphasized the importance of spiritual application when giving the treatments:
"Q. Is there an adrenal glandular deficiency which
should be helped?
"A. Not so much as the coordination in ALL of the
functioning of the organs as to assimilation and elimination. The coordination
of the cerebrospinal and sympathetic system, with the properties indicated,
should make the glandular disturbance become more and more normal. Be patient,
be persistent, be consistent. Not by might, but by PERSUASION. A little
today, a little tomorrow; though the next day it may all be thrown aside,
CONTINUE to make those suggestions. And we will find, while there may be
periods when there will be the refusal to allow the [osteopathic] manipulative
measures, if those influences are used that may be had by such persuasions,
these may be administered to the greater benefit."
The response to treatment was relatively quick. A letter from the daughter dated January 28, 1936, stated:
"A few days over a month have passed since you gave
me Mother's reading. Yet, as you know, this was used only since about Jan.
5th and then not entirely in full because of the hold-up of equipment.
Despite these hindrances I want to report to you the wonderful news of
extraordinary improvements I am seeing. The osteopathic treatments have
literally worked miracles and I look forward to great help from the Radio-Active
Appliance which has, so far, been used only four times.
"Try to imagine my joy in being able to report a
nearly normal attitude sometimes Mother will take a little more food
and she has even ASKED for a bit more at times. Although she has been unable
to chew liver for years, my butcher and I have now devised a chopped liver
(fresh) which she has even suggested my cooking in the nearly raw state
for her! Within the past week I have seen a continual reduction of the
negative attitude.
"In order to get a better picture of what this means
to me, let me tell you (or am I only reminding you) that previous spells
have lasted two-and-a-half or three years. My great hope is to continue
treatments as prescribed and to turn my efforts then to finding "self's
activities for betterment, to be used FOR something!" This is a truly great
problem, for Mother is entirely alone here in this great city my own
friends are few and not her type at all and she has never been a woman
of intellectual or artistic pursuits. But we shall see "
About a month later, the daughter again wrote Edgar Cayce with good news:
"I send you wonderful news about Mother. She is weak physically, but oh! her mind is so much better than previously. She shows every disposition to help me and the doctor, only querulous and mean OCCASIONALLY. I have had several indications of interest in outside things from her and only wish I could provide her with friends and with a hobby of her own."
The final report in this file is dated April, 13,
1939. The daughter observed, "My mother is greatly improved."
Some Key Points to Remember
Bipolar disorder is characterized by mood swings between the low moods of depression and the high, elevated moods of mania. During Edgar Cayce's lifetime, it was known as manic-depressive illness. Edgar Cayce gave readings for several persons suffering from this disorder. In this chapter, we have reviewed two case studies of women suffering from bipolar disorder. In both cases, there was a disruption in certain key nerve centers which resulted in the characteristic mood swings between depression and mania. Physical, mental, and spiritual therapies were recommended and followed with excellent results in both cases.
Although Edgar Cayce described a variety of causes of bipolar disorder, most often the nerve and glandular systems were involved (and particularly the glands of the reproductive system). Genetic predisposition was mentioned in some cases.
Keep in mind that mood disorders exist along a continuum or spectrum of emotional experience that varies greatly from person to person. Thus the severity of bipolar disorder and other mood disturbances is highly variable. Bipolar disorder is sometimes associated with psychotic features or symptoms. In other words, the afflicted individual may be "out of touch" with physical reality.
Of all the various forms that depression can take,
bipolar disorder seems to have the strongest transpersonal features. We
have encountered two significant transpersonal aspects of mental illness
in this chapter, "possession" and the "body-soul" connection. The next
chapter will further define and explain the transpersonal dimension of
mental illnesses such as unipolar and bipolar depression.
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